George Osborne: bailout is 'good for Britain'

The Greek bail-out is "good for Britain", Chancellor George Osborne insisted today as he hailed this morning's deal as a "really significant step" towards resolving the eurozone crisis.

Speaking to reporters as he arrived for an EU finance ministers' meeting in Brussels this morning, Mr Osborne said: "Of course, resolving the Greek situation is only part of resolving the eurozone crisis but I think we took a really significant step towards that last night and that is good for Britain because resolving the eurozone crisis would be the biggest boost that Britain could get for its economy this year."

The Chancellor said the package was a major step towards securing debt sustainability in Greece."That's been the crucial missing ingredient," he added. "They have not, in the past, come up with a sustainable position for Greece. I think they have made real progress now towards giving a sustainable debt position for Greece.

"Of course the Greek people, the Greek political system has to deliver really difficult decisions now but I don't think Greece has any other option.

"The other significant point about last night's deal was that the rest of the eurozone signalled a willingness to stand behind their currency and stand behind Greece and frankly all along the failure to deal with the Greek situation has caused uncertainty.

"Hopefully we can all move on now and get the European economy growing."

In return for the latest 130bn euro (£110bn) bail-out and a private creditor debt write-off worth about another 100bn euros (£84bn), the Greek government is pledged to implement fully a severe austerity package of pay, pension and jobs cuts, as well as finding savings of 325m euros (£270m) in this year's national budget.

The Greek economy received a 110bn euro (£91bn) bail out from the EU and IMF in 2010 but it was not enough to lift Greece out of crisis.